


Valhalla is A Spaceship and Home is Not Where We Thought it Was

by gladheonsleeps



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brunnhilde needs a drink, D/s undertones, F/F, F/M, Loki's Children - Freeform, Lokyrie, M/M, Nerd Loki, Not Infinity War compliant, Odin bashing, Odin's A+ Parenting, Realm Hopping, References to Abuse, Thor is a good king, Thor is trying, Valki - Freeform, another shiny castle in the sky, asexual Sigyn, but I don't like to go to dark places so it shouldn't be too bad, but there will be references, dub con, loki and his books, loki the spy, loki's library, longfic, or whoops maybe it was, references, research is fun, should have just read more and things would have been far more OK, smart!Loki, smuts, valkyrie worldbuilding, yggdrasil wasn't built in a day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 21:11:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14197779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladheonsleeps/pseuds/gladheonsleeps
Summary: Asgard was destroyed by Hela and Surtur but Loki and his family had planned ahead. Their contingency will take a lot of work to keep running but it's the least of their worries when Brunnhilde drops a truthbomb that no one was expecting, but perhaps it will give them a direction to travel inAnother long fic with a big shiny castle in the sky, expect Valkyries and whores and books and realm hopping*Sorry kittens this fic is abandoned*





	1. Chapter 1

LOKI  raced from where he had gracelessly landed the Commodore ship in a ruined courtyard that was a favourite of his mother’s in the crumbling ruin that used to be the Palace of Asgard. He was here on Thor’s orders—well partially on Thor’s orders, he would get to that in the moment but first he had some back up plans to implement.

He was sure Thor, the Valkyrie and his pet Hulk would hold. Instead of turning right to enter to the weapons vault, he turned left and whipped through several extremely secret passages, quickly disarming his many wards and entering a ginormous natural cavern, wincing a little at the light glittering off of a ceiling of crystals that held enough power to run a small planet. It had been a secret of his for a thousand years, who knew how long it had sat here unused before that. He’d been using it to power so many wild experiments and to hide his more nefarious activities from Heimdall all that time; the magical static the crystals created was probably the reason Odin never really used this space for anything, and the number one reason Loki had been drawn to it so enthusiastically.

Loki had always wandered, explored. He wasn’t called the Skywalker for nothing after all; but long before he had discovered the paths between the branches of Yggdrasil, he had explored every inch of the palace. This cave he had found on his five hundredth name day while he was avoiding his various responsibilities at a formal reception. He forgot now, what Volstagg had said that had made him so keen to run away from his own celebrations but run he had, and he had been crouched in a ball, hidden  under a shelf in an empty pantry when a wall had shifted and he’d fallen backwards.What he found had been worth the scrapes and bruised bottom from the tumble.

Then, it had been empty, and he had been awed by its size and the fact that his father hadn’t utilized such a powerful space, especially with the fact that it lead to the end of the world. It was located on the opposite side of the city to the rainbow bridge and the bifrost and most importantly for his most recent exploits... as far from Heimdall’s sight as he could possibly find on Asgard. He pulled up shortly as he was approached by one of the few people he trusted in the multiverse, his heart near bursting with relief that she still lived.

Sigyn, his ex-wife and the platonic love of his life ran into his arms, lifting him up bodily as she hugged him tightly, “Gods damn it all you bastard Loki! I was so worried!” Loki allowed himself the barest moment squeezing his eyes shut with relief before he pulled back and regained his footing.

“We have no time for that now, Wife; Is it possible? I know we were counting on having more time but can we do it?” he asked, he assumed it must be if Sigyn hadn’t left her position after the last few days. Days that had felt like a year as the bottom once again fell out of his world.

Sigyn nodded, expression solemn. “Yes. We’ll be continuing to build her while she flies but we can do it.”

Loki’s shoulders relaxed a fraction in relief. “Thank the Norns.” He kissed her on the cheek and gave her his key before turning to go.

She stood, staring at his key before she looked up at his retreating back, nonplussed, “Oh, Thor wanted me to resurrect Surtur, I’ll see you on the other side, dear heart!” he called with a wicked smile and began, once more to run.

Sigyn rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, ready to save the world even as her ex husband bounded away to destroy it.

...

BRUNNHILDE  was sore.

Brain sore, heart sore, and the type of sore she hadn’t felt in two thousand years and she’d really been hoping to go a few more thousand without remembering what surviving a fight with Hela Odinsdottir felt like.

She sat in a crawlspace she’d found nearby where ThorKing was gathered with his advisors and friends, barely registering the turbulence as the banged up freight ship Loki had pulled out of his ass shook off Asgard’s gravitational energies and made its escape.

All she registered was the ever expanding ball of fire that had been her home so long ago.

She’d found it again only to lose it of course. It wasn’t like she was surprised; it just sucked a whole lot.

It hurt. Everything did, after Loki had psychically removed the barriers she’d been working on for longer than he’d been alive she felt things. She _felt_. 

She longed, ached for a drink, but couldn’t bring herself to look away from the destruction they were flying away from.

And it wasn’t like Loki was here to help her put that wall back up. Either the little fucker was dead, which was highly likely considering where he was sent just half an hour ago; even if he was a slippery son of a bitch and good at scrambling out of any crack he could in any tight situation he found himself in.

That or he’d fucked off, using the tactical advantage of Surtur’s distraction to escape, ahead of the fact that it would soon once again be remembered that he had posed as Odin for five whole years and - in Thor’s opinion at least, she knew- had ushered in the avalanche of calamity that the old man’s death had triggered.

Brunnhilde finally smiled. A sharp thing that tasted of blood as it pulled her split lip open again -The laugh she huffed hurt her broken ribs like a bitch too. She had to laugh though. She knew she was a little hysterical but really...

OdinKing, AllFather, Conqueror of the nine realms’ adopted frost giant son exiling him to his beloved Midgard and taking his place on Hliðskjálf was a fucking lark, it was. You couldn’t make this shit up.

Odin’s sons. If she was honest Thor had been a complete surprise, considering his parents. She hadn’t exactly had time to absorb too much of the story but she’d heard snatches of news over the years on Sakkar, gossip about the royals of Yggdrasil spread pretty far considering. But the Grandmaster had followed that gossip like a soap opera, delighting in the ridiculous tales that came from their direction.

Loki of course was as loved outside of Odin’s rule as he was loathed within it, and generally for the exact same reasons. She was sure he was a talented and brutal spy, an agent who was trained just like Hela had been because Odin was too prideful to ever admit a mistake and never failed to make the same ones over and over again.

Loki’s shadow work wasn’t what had people gossiping of course; he was awfully fond of the art of spectacle as distraction and as such was always at the epicentre of hilariously entertaining drama, and the Grandmaster loved drama. Almost as much as he loved sex and over 85% of the stories involving the beautiful second prince of Asgard involved sex, and lots of it. 

The Grandmaster loved these stories in particular of course because they contained both of his favourite hobbies at once. And after all of that of course he had been utterly delighted for the opportunity to fuck the ‘Prince of mischief’ when he had basically fallen into Grandmaster’s lap via Hela’s favourite move in the bifrost.

She’d done it plenty of times, so many that Brunnhilde had been surprised anyone had been caught out by it by this time, but then who would have known that Odin was quite so stupid as to erase his firstborn from history, not even telling his own sons?

She snorted, what an idiot.

Both of them were idiots. Grandmaster got fucked over by Loki of course, and so did Odin.

...of course Odin hadn’t fucked Loki so it wasn’t the same... or maybe he did... Brunnhilde wouldn’t put it past him and it’s not like he’d never done anything similar... Norns Brunnhilde didn’t want to know. She wished she had a drink to help scrub that thought from her mind. She was looking around the room with a grimace, checking to make sure there wasn’t in fact a bottle stowed somewhere when the young chaos prince himself supplied his own distraction.

She gaped as the window screen filled with the sight of a glittering, shining citadel made of gold.

She had to be dreaming. She was probably dead, finally. Because it sure as hell looked like Valhalla.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Brunnhilde was spurred into movement as she heard Thor’s crowing delight from several rooms away where she sat in her little crawl space. She slid out, barely wincing at the movement’s effect on her healing body as she silently walked towards where she knew the new king and Heimdall to be. She was entering the bridge when they heard a crackle of the intercom and Loki’s wide grin appeared from the hologram projector and he bent into a theatrical bow.

Soon enough, Loki’s wry tone was heard echoing throughout the metal halls of the freight ship. “Come on, _brother;_  you didn’t think I took the throne so I could dabble in amature theatre did you now?”

Thor’s laugh could almost be described as a cackle and Brunnhilde grinned.

 _Diversion_.

She was happy enough to be surprised, though she wondered at the presence of this ship if the prince hadn't known about the existence of his sister.

A statuesque blonde woman shoved Loki on the shoulder while she laughed and Brunnhilde raised her eyebrows as she watched him take the treatment on hologram as if it was entirely normal for the touchy prince to be thrown about bodily by this person.

She was wondering who the woman was when Thor answered the question for her.

“Sigyn!” he called, his voice suddenly thick with emotion. “Sister! You live!”

Brunnhilde’s eyebrows rose higher at the mention of the princess they hadn’t heard word of in years. The holoimage smiled, and shrugged. “Oh come on ‘Majesty, there’s no time for this now. We can talk about it once we have everyone loaded onto this ship.” Their image disappeared and were replaced by docking protocols and then there were overwrought Aesir refugees to transfer once again and finally get them all settled in some sort of sustainable fashion.

It was a damn sight better than this piece of junk, that was for sure.

Brunnhilde was called to help with the move of course, now that she was out of hiding, and now that apparently she _helped people_.

And help she did, ushering civilians who were in shock and exhausted, if a little giddy and awed by Loki’s latest coop through the various air locks and into a receiving hall where the indominbal prince was there himself greeting people while cradling a sleeping toddler on his shoulder.

Norns damn it but he was good, Brunnhilde thought, before she was distracted by a noble man trying to take advantage in a knot of young women who Brunn had a hunch were from a certain profession. He retreated at the tip of her own drawn dagger and Brunn spent the rest of the evening with the group who seemed to double, then triple in size over the course of the next few hours.

She also noticed however that she wasn’t the only one with a sword, and not just any sword either...

She had seen them on the rainbow bridge, these woman, some only barely at their majority and others not even there yet who had fought with a desperation only a woman could, against a foe they had no chance of beating. She wondered how they’d got their hands on the weapons they’d fought with, how they’d managed to retain them, and consequently their lives as she watched them now clinging to their faintly glowing weapons in lieu of any other belongings.

Now wasn’t the time for asking, so she just stayed where she was, leaning against a wall, and drinking out of a flagon Korg had casually pressed into her hand as he walked passed at one point.

She learned a lot by listening in the meantime.

The place was filled to the brim with magic, the substance of which felt like Asgard herself was present, whispering fingers on her hair and skin. Brunnhilde narrowed her eyes, for if Asgard still existed, arguably so could Hela.

Was this a trap? What was Loki’s angle? Why did this ship exist? She could see it was unfinished. While the design was elegant, the hall had been left unpolished or decorated in lieu of making sure the mechanics and magics were complete and flight ready and Brunnhilde could see they were a ways off finishing.

So then, this hadn’t been the reason for the ship’s engineering; though the longer that she was in it and the more she saw it was clear that this was in fact very close to the reason for its existence. She saw her charges to the chamber that all were being lead to to be fed and sorted and noted and recorded and double checked by clerks and diplomats, accountants and politicians who upon seeing Loki’s structure had regained some semblance of moral back and had reported to the Prince’s Staff (who were all, interestingly, quite alive and seemed to be quite significantly more calm than everyone else), fronting up to help with the recovery of order, but it was clear they had been given and were following a pre-existing script and procedure.

Which was absolutely a good thing; there was counting, recounting and more counting to be done, figuring out who out of all of Asgard had survived the wrath of Hela. there were possibly a number of magic users on top of these who may have escaped with their families through other means and they needed to be found and reached once the dust had settled.

These people all needed to be healed, fed, watered and housed, and Brunnhilde was impressed with the smoothness of which this all happened due to Loki’s foresight and planning. The man wasn’t just a good spy, apparently he was also evidently brilliant at bureaucracy and civic planning.

It put a whole new perspective on the boy’s coop during the last few years. She noted that she heard only a very small amount of murmuring about the prince being at fault for their troubles, and mostly just impatience about having to stand in line.

Brunnhilde watched from her position and tracked the movements of her girls while they were jostled and ignored, pinched and pushed aside; but were mostly fine because of the sheer number they had gathered by now. Brunnhilde couldn’t help smiling. They were in dire circumstances but she was proud of these young women she didn’t even know. They were very possibly the large demographic left standing.

Aesir women had always been exceedingly strong, though somewhere between her leaving and now she could see their position in society had shifted. It made her happy, however that no matter that things were different these days this fact wasn’t. The women may have been discounted, but they were still just as intelligent and strong as they always had been.

If anything it was as good a foundation as any for Asgard to build upon. What they would build, however was up for discussion and she was glad it was above her pay grade.

She decided they had waited long enough to be counted, not having missed their group being ignored several times, and so she moved to the front of their group and encouraged them away from the cue. Instead of steering them to an aide or clerk Brunnhilde took the elbow of the young woman who seemed to be taking leadership of their group and led her and the others to Prince Loki himself.

“You’ve lost your little friend.” she said wryly as he noticed them and he paused for a moment before realising what she meant and chuckled.

“His father found us, thank the norns, I thought it best he go with him.” He said quietly, his expression holding something she had no idea what to make of. The Prince obviously had a soft spot for kids, and Brunnhilde filed that away with the rest of the information she hadn’t stopped collecting since she saw the beautiful prince on Sakkar one afternoon with the Grandmaster’s dick in his mouth.

Loki’s smile slipped completely as he noticed the group of young women behind her. The expression was replaced, interestingly enough by relief and then concern...Perhaps one of the girls was a lover of his. Some of them would be his contemporaries after all... 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki saying "surprise" in the driest of tones

He opened his mouth to speak when Thor appeared, clapping Loki on the back so hard Brunnhilde was surprised that the prince was still standing after it. It must be normal to throw him around then. No wonder he hadn’t been perturbed when she’d thrashed him in their fight (in fact, he’d actually seemed to enjoy it). 

“Brother! Valkyrie!” Thor boomed, it was a quiet boom, but Brunnhilde was surprised to see how much strain he must have been carrying for their whole acquaintance, for he was practically glowing now. Sure, they still had a long way to go, but even Thor had been made more buoyant by the appearance of Loki, Sigyn, and this valhalla ship. 

Their home was gone forever, there was no question things were dire; but they were no longer entirely homeless, which was definitely something. “Majesty,” Brunnhilde grinned back, toasting him with her flagon. 

“Actually, it’s funny you say that Thor.” Loki said, clearing his throat uncomfortably and looking over Brunnhilde’s shoulder. 

Thor followed his gaze, confused, and Brunn had no idea where he was leading either. “It’s funny I say what?”

Loki shrugged and swept his arm to encompass the young women who stood behind her, clearing his throat awkwardly again before pronouncing, “The Valkyrie- or  _ Valkyrior _ .” 

Brunn’s eyebrows shot up and she looked over her shoulders to see a great chunk of the women kneeling before Thor, their fist over their hearts. The others -about two thirds of their number-were curtsying instead and looked about as confused as the King was, but the effect was still quite moving. Brunn didn’t know what to say. Thor seemed to be in the same boat. “Loki-”

“--I mean this is a little different than how I always envisioned announcing the Pegasis Initiative, and it seems they’ve done a little recruiting of their own, but--” the blood drained from Brunnhilde’s face.

“Excuse me-  _ Valkyrjur _ _? _ What made you think that was a good idea?” Brunnhilde barked, feeling utterly shocked. The man kept finding ways to turn her world upside down. “It was you, wasn’t it? I mean Odin is pretty stupid and is known for his repeated mistakes but I don’t see him- he hated us in the end…”

He paused, obviously her response had been a little surprise of her own,“A number of things, I admit, all colliding to form an idea, as tends to happen with these things. Now isn’t the time to speak of it however, and it’s only in its experimental stages, no one was to find out for quite some time -never if we found it didn’t work out- but then...” Loki trailed off, the rest obvious. His gaze was caught between a shyness about being caught out with an idea he clearly cared about; and yet projecting an unexpected air of protectiveness over the girls that made Brunnhilde raise her eyebrows. She nodded though, and motioned for them to continue. 

Thor found his voice, finally, speaking to the collective women. “Valkyrior, you may stand at ease.” He said, and the women did so, coming to their feet and standing at readiness. Their form wasn’t perfect, and the way he pronounced the word was different; but it was clear that whoever had been training them hadn’t been flying blind. Those were  Valkyrjur forms, just a little clumsy, like their trainer had … read about it in a book, perhaps.

“Wait, why aren’t they in uniform?” Thor asked and Brunnhilde looked to the Prince again, interested to see how this conversation panned out.

“I don’t really know, perhaps because Hela visited on their day off, or perhaps because they saw every single uniformed Einherjar slaughtered in front of them like lambs;” Brunnhilde couldn’t help a violent flinch, and Loki raised his eyebrows but only said flatly, “Your guess is as good as mine,” He finished, still looking at her, but Brunnhilde was not anywhere near amused. 

“The first rule of the  valkyrja, Stay alive to fight another day. Don’t die to protect,  _ live _ to protect,” she said quietly, face feeling numb. 

Loki looked into her eyes, his expression held a knowing. He knew. He  _ knew _ , how could he  _ know _ ? “Death is the last resort.” He continued quietly, and Brunnhilde heard the young women behind her whispering it too, like an echo from her nightmares. They were all  _ so  _ young, they shouldn’t-- “To breathe is to live. To live is to fight. To fight is to win. To win is to conquer.” 

Brunnhilde  _ wasn’t  _ breathing. She gasped for breath, her vision blacking at the edges before her sight returned, Loki filling her vision, his forearm under hers, gripping her elbow to keep her standing and his features a mask of concern. She turned away and saw hundreds of woman looking at her like she was something to aspire to. 

For the second time, Loki had made her remember, he had made her  _ feel _ , and she wasn’t sure if she could ever forgive him.

Odin’s betrayal hit her once again like the weight of a pegasus falling out of the sky, crushing her. He had betrayed his daughter and his sisters, the  Valkyrjur . He had made them battle one another to the death. He had sent them on a suicide mission and they had died. All of them. He’d been angry at Freya for something, she didn’t even know what. That was one hell of a way to retire a regiment but it was hardly surprising considering it was Odin. Hela may have been the goddess of death, but  that was an inheritance from Odin, Odin kinsayer, Odin deathbringer, Odin worldkiller.

He’d turned everything on its head. He killed the  valkyrjur and used  valkyrja  magic to keep the  Einherjar , his shiny new army in play. 

The thing was she  _ had _ died, she’d died seven times and been resurrected every single time. It hurt, it  _ burned _ . And then you had to work your ass off to get back into shape when you came back. 

Did Loki know  _ this _ ? Did he know the burning of one brought back from hel to fight once more? She looked deep into his eyes and what she saw there shook her to her core. 

To be honest she had almost been relieved when she saw that Hela was as unhinged as they’d been told when OdinKing sent them to their graves. If she wasn’t that day, the place he’d sent her to while she still lived did the job.

Brunnhilde hadn’t really known, the truth had had nothing to do with Odin’s actions that day and Brunnhilde had no desire or energy to untangle the lies. Her sisters had been taken from her. Her love had-  

She hadn’t been able to bring herself to go back. She had pretended to be dead because she was not. She was breathing, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to breathe, she didn’t want to fight, so she drank, and she cheated and she stole and she fucked. For a thousand years. 


End file.
